'Weeds' Premiere: EP Says Season 7's Nancy Was Born This Way

To look at Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) now, it may be difficult to reconcile the version of her we met when the series began and the version that’s just about to leave prison without her family (who have fled to Copenhagen) and totally on her own in New York City.

Some may feel that she has strayed way too far from who she really is. But according to executive producer Roberto Benabib, we’re about to meet Nancy at her most authentic in Season 7’s premiere on Monday at 10 p.m. on Showtime.

“I think the general misconception is that Nancy strayed from who she really is, which was a suburban housewife,” Benabib tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Whereas the conceit of the show is that the suburban housewife was the stray and that she’s really a kind of danger junkie, kind of addicted to the action like she is now.”

He explains that the woman we met all those years back in Agrestic was actually Nancy going against her real nature. As Judah’s pregnant wife in Southern California, she was actually living her “fish out of water” scenario. “Actually now is who Nancy was really born to be,” Benabib adds.

So, if you had any expectations that Nancy was going emerge from spending three years in prison and walk the straight and narrow path of life, you’d be smart to let go of that expectation now.

“You’ll see her basically reboot and start off from scratch,” Benabib says. “And you’ll see that there’s a general acceptance of who she is and what she does. You’re not going to see a Nancy that’s going to apply for a waitressing job or a secretary’s job. You’re going to see a Nancy that will probably use her skills in the drug business to get back into the drug business.”